Due to my Jeep being the most unfriendly beast in known history to drive:
Bounces all over the place
EVERY part of it rattles and is driving me crazy
Every thing I need to fix is rusted solid
Leaks like a sieve, and if I block the leaks it fills up from other leaks.
Any upgrade cost an arm and a leg
16 MPG on a good day
Fuel tank grounds out on every section venting fumes (as marshals keep saying, but its worse inside)
Radio has just died.
Top speed of 30 on bumpy rods cos it tracks all over the place, 55 M'Ways cos of intense drumming sound and more weaving.
Did I mention a set of leaf springs cost Â£750 ?

Apart from all that I still love it but I seriously think its time to move on to a new toy.

It would be all too easy to move to the dark side and buy a 'landy' but I think a trial prepped Jimny is sounding really good atm so I am saving hard and some time next year............

Now to the serious bit need thoughts and advice on the following ideas and did I miss anything:

Most of the fancy kit on your dream prep list is just unnecessary for trials and laning trips (and lockers cannot be used on our trials anyway). Unless you are looking at more extreme comps then it looks like a whole pile of trinkets for trinkets sake to me

Narrow, high lifted vehicle on soft spring with big tyres sounds iffy to me for road use. The better gearbox ratios to compensate for big tyres could be a waste of money if it won't corner at decent speeds on country roads......

Spend Â£6K on a prepped Jimny and it could well only be worth as much as the base vehicle if you wanted to sell it on as a going concern (a couple of grand maybe?) Due to it being not a very versatile vehicle. So if you end up not liking it may be difficult to sell for what you paid for it and a lot of the kit would be hard to sell separately as it is such a small market.

I'm no technical person on these things, but if you can get quite of lot of Landy for Â£6K "out of the box" trial ready ! Decent suspension as standard, reasonable performance engine (300tdi or maybe a TD5). Loads of room for camping trips and passengers, cheap parts, easy to do/get hold of mods if you want em later. Well looked after it will keep reasonable value as the money is in the motor itself not the fancy added bits. Defender or Disco. You know it makes sense!

have a chat with a couple of the chaps on the difflock suzuki page that own modded jimnys.
they'll tell you a lifted mud tyred 1.3 jimny also struggles to get over 60mpg and return 15-20mpg.
bonkers i know, small and light - but the little engine has to be caned to keep it at any decent speed. You can go faster (comparatively) and get 30mpg in a 2 tonne landy 300tdi...

if you must go down the jimny route - the favoured mod at the moment is to put in the 1.6gti lump from the swift gti. That gives it some real get up and go and also improves the fuel consumption. But i think in something that small with big tyres and a 79" wheelbase, it'll still handle like a turd.

Â£6k will get a nice td5 90 with some change for a set of 33" tyres - ready out of the box for trialling. Plus the td5 with a remap is a really fun vehicle to drive with ooodles of power. I know its a disco and not a 90, but our disco2 td5 has been remapped and it will go faster than the father-outlaws disco2 v8 auto I have to keep looking at the speedo when i tow the caravan, as i just dont know its there most of the time and i look down and see i'm doing 75-80!
Plus there are td5 90's out there with traction control lots of power, centre diff lock and t/c will give you ALOT of traction without falling foul of the club rule on no aftermarket lockers.

Richard we were down 1 motor on the green lane trip because it put a rod through the side of the block on the way to Tebay at about 60mph, twas a Zuke BTW !
Nuff said.
Buy a good standard 90 (tdi for simplicity, TD5 if you want to be flash/have the money to sort it out ) and use it out of the box with a decent set of tyres.
Matthew
(300tdi 90 with very minor suspension mods for clearance )

I still miss my Jimny for its off road ability, it was very very competent.

But it was fragile, bits were expensive (CV Â£130), on road it was terrible, 50 mph was just a dream. Mine was built by Darren at KAP and if I wanted a motor just for trialling then I would a have another, but if you want something a bit more versatile then a landy it must be.

Thanks for all the feedback, I must say its given me a lot to think about, I certainly won't be rushing into anything having seen all the options that have been suggested, I will definatly do some reading up on landrovers, any more thoughts and suggestions please keep them coming )

After taking a look at Madcalc's link I did a bit of searching on Ebay and it seems theres a bewildering choice of Land Rovers, 90's 110's, Disccovery's, Freelanders, Range Rovers, and thats even before getting onto engine choice, transmission etc etc.

If anyone has a bit of free time to spare could you post some recomendations to help me decide.

Considerations that come to mind but I'm sure there are many more:

Primeraly its for trialing so good articulation, grunt and ground clearance.

Needs to do a bit more than 16mpg.

Dont want a rust box because I have to do all my maintaince at the road side.

Does not need to be fast, at 48 I have been there done that and have the broken bones to prove it, but I would like a slightly less harsh ride than my Jeep.

Am used to the Jeep turning circle so dont want to compromise this more than I have to.

Pickup / tray back is out as I like to be able to sling my camping gear in the back.

If you can post some suggestions with pro's and Cons of the various types of Landy on offer it would be appreciated.

I'm not convinced you should be changing to the green oval but, if you do, you only really have two choices...

Hard Top 90 - Probably the best all round vehicle you can get, plenty of room in the back for "junk". Can be fitted with tyres up to 235/85 without any suspension or body mods. Can be converted to soft top, pickup or mix of both in an hour or so.

Chassis, bulkhead and door bottoms are the most likely areas to find problems with corrosion.

Engine choices are V8, 200 or 300 TDi and TD5, you don't want any of the earlier diesels. Auto isn't available as standard but can be fitted fairly easily.

Discovery 1 - More comfortable and better fuel consumption than the 90. Needs suspension and body mods to take a decent tyre size. Main advantage over 90 is more carrying space and can comfortable seat 5 whereas the 90 is only really suitable to seat 2.

Engine choices are V8, 200 or 300 TDi, avoid early carb V8s though. Auto is available as standard fit on all engines.

You get more for your money with a Disco than you do with a 90, the 90 is a more basic vehicle but it is more capable off road in it's standard form and is generally easier to work on.

You'll never get the same turning circle from a Land Rover product as your Jeep. Both options will give you better articulation and ground clearance than the Jeep though. Obviously the 90 will turn better than the Disco will being that bit shorter.

For me the best all round on/off road vehicle would be a TD5 Auto 90, a 300Tdi auto is OK too. V8 with LPG is a good alternative, it does reduce your load lugging capability but works out slightly cheaper to run than a TD5.

Many thanks for the explanation Dave, was exactly what I needed to point me in the direction for some more research.

Will be reading up and looking into 90's my only reservation is the auto part, never used an auto and the thought of it seems a little daunting.

If anyone at the next event that can let me have a ride in their Landy it would be apperciated just so I can get a feel, no sections or anything just a spin round the woods would be fine, and welcome to try out my Jeep )))

Ohh and I bought Land Rover Monthly mag tonight, have to thanks Pam for starting the ball rolling with some very sensible comments to suggest I look at the options and consider all the variables involved, men can get a bit tunnel visioned when we see a nice potential new toy on the horizen.

Leak sorted, I was at a loose end this morning so resorted to the usual problem solver !! Google !!

Issue was that after a heavy nights rain fall the passenger foot well was normaly dry but as soon as I set off there was a sound of wooshing water and a torrent filled the passenger footwell, I looked every where but could find no logical explanation for this, also the heater / dash area are a bugger to get to.

Solution was insanly simple, seems there is a drain from the bonnet air intake that feeds the heater fresh air intake, and it has a drain pipe that has a restricted end, yup the drain pipe hidden behind lots of wires and stuff was full of mud leaves etc and blocked.

On the subject of what to buy - my brother in law got a 300tdi Disco with very little corrosion for Â£1600 a couple of years ago which is still going strong apart from non-parking wipers.
The Christmas before last I drove that car on a drive-around day near Perth (Scotland - not Oz) on AT tyres and there was only one obstacle that others were doing that I couldn't. The next day that same car took three people, two dogs and a huge pile of luggage on a 300 mile road trip in comfort and with speed and economy. Incredible versatility!
For me (if I was starting over) it would be a 300tdi Disco, and on the subject of auto vs manual I would have a slight preference for auto since I believe these to be more robust and gentler on the rest of the transmission.

If you do go for a Disco, talk to a few people about corrosion so you know where to look. They can be horrendous, but equally I have seen several that are really clean.

Personally I like the fact that the club has some variety in vehicle makes and types, so - looking at your requirements maybe a Shogun or TLC should also be considered? But - the big thing about LR products for me would be the HUGE depth of knowledge that is freely on offer within the club. So with your requirements and budget, I would still end up with a good clean 300tdi Disco with 2" lift, protection, arches, and a nice set of normal MTs like KL71. Can't go wrong (well maybe just a little)